On 11 June 2014 the General Assembly of the ENCJ elected the next President and the members of the Executive Board.

Geoffrey Vos, member of the Judges´ Council of England and Wales was elected President for a term of 18 months, starting on 1 January 2015.

The following members were elected for a term of two years, taking immediate effect:

Conseil Supérieur de la Justice, Belgium

High Judicial Council, Bulgaria

National Judicial Council, Poland

The following members were elected for a term of one year, taking immediate effect, with the possibility to be re-elected:

Conseil Supérieur de la Justice, France

Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura, Italy

Consiliul Superior al Magistraturii, Romania

Consejo General del Poder Judicial, Spain

10 th anniversary celebrations and ENCJ General Assembly in Rome

The ENCJ will gather 11-13 June in Rome to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The celebrations will be kicked-off with a reception in the Quirinale Palace hosted by the President of the Italian Republic, Mr Napolitano, who also presides the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura. Throughout the two days of the General Assembly the reports of the ENCJ projects will be presented, discussed and adopted. Furthermore the ENCJ 2014-2018 work plan will be discussed and a Rome Declaration will be adopted.

Report on the state of Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Europe

The Council of Europe published its first report on the state of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe. Part 2 of the report particularly deals with Justice and the Rule of Law, and identifies the following main challenges:

Executive interference in the functioning of the judiciary;

Corruption within the judiciary;

Lack of public trust in the judiciary;

Excessive length of proceedings and

Chronic non-enforcement of judicial decisions

The main recommendations in this field include the introduction of effective measures to shorten the length of judicial proceedings and enforcing of court decisions, the strengthening of transparency within the judicial system and respect for judicial independence, the improvement of the quality of the training of judges and gender balance in the senior judiciary

On Monday 17 March the European Commission published the 2014 EU Justice Scoreboard. It brings together data concerning the efficiency, quality and independence of the Justice systems of the EU Member States. The ENCJ, through its members, has worked with the Commission on the 2014 EU Justice Scorebard by collecting information on the legal protection of judicial independence in Member States. Link to DG Justice website

European Commission sets out the future of EU Justice policy and framework for safeguarding Rule of Law

The European Commission published two communications on 11 March 2014. The first communication sets out the vision of the Commission for the future EU Justice policy which aims at further progressing towards a fully functioning common European area of justice based on trust, mobility and growth by 2020.

The Commission also adopted a new framework which establishes an early warning tool allowing the Commission to enter into a dialogue with a Member State to prevent the escalation of systemic threats to the rule of law in any of the EU Member States. According to the communication the Commission may decide to seek advice and assistance from members of the judicial networks in the EU, such as the networks of the Presidents of Supreme Courts of the EU, the Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the EU or the Judicial Councils. The Commission will examine, together with these networks, how such assistance could be provided swiftly where appropriate, and whether particular arrangements are necessary to that end.

On 9 March 2015 the European Commission published the 2015 EU Justice Scoreboard. The Scoreboard contains indicators in the following fields: Efficieny of Justice Systems; Quality of Justice Systems and on the Independence of the...

In September 2014 the new members of the Consiglio Superiode della Magistratura started their four-year mandate. Under Italy'sConstitution the CSM is the self-government body of the judiciary; it is competent for recruitment, allocation,...

Based on amendment of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic effective since 1 September 2014, the office of the President of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic was separated from the office of the President of the Supreme Court of...

In June 2011 the ENCJ General Assembly decided to organise a series of regional timeliness seminars. The aim of the seminars is to increase awareness for the issue of Timeliness, to deepen the understanding of causes and remedies, and to...

Besides the ENCJ Rome Declaration the General Assembly adopted the reports on: Independence and Accountability of the Judiciary Standards on the Allocation of Cases. The Guide to the ENCJ was also published. Lastly the General...

The success of these projects confirmed that adoption of common / minimum standards improves the understanding among judicial authorities and different legal systems and, therefore, contributes to the reinforcement of mutual confidence and...

In 2013 the ENCJ started an ambitious project which aimed to develop indicators for the independence and accountability of the Justice systems of the EU. The second objective was to present an ENCJ vision on the independence and accountability...

The ENCJ General Assembly met 11-13 June in Rome to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The formal establishment of the network was done in Rome in May 2004. The 10th annniversary celebrations kicked-off with a reception at the Quirinale Palace...